CHAPTER 3 — THE INVESTIGATION
Detective Sarah Morales met me in Interview Room Three.
I placed everything on the table.
Emma's torn nightgown.
Photographs from the hospital.
Voice messages she had secretly sent me months earlier.
"I never wanted to worry you," Emma said in one recording.
"If anything ever happens to me... please don't believe whatever Carter says."
Detective Morales looked up slowly.
"Why didn't she leave?"
"She thought having the baby would change him."
Morales closed the file.
"It rarely does."
Within hours, detectives obtained a search warrant.
The Whitmore mansion was no longer a symbol of wealth.
It became a crime scene.
Crime scene investigators photographed bloodstains in the marble foyer.
A damaged golf club was recovered from a locked storage room.
Forensic testing found Emma's blood on the shaft.
Security cameras that Carter claimed had "malfunctioned" were restored by digital specialists.
The recordings showed Victoria grabbing Emma by the hair.
They showed Carter striking her.
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They showed both of them carrying her unconscious body into an SUV before abandoning her at the deserted bus stop.
The evidence spoke louder than either of them ever could.
